Guidance

Social care common inspection framework (SCCIF): residential provision of further education colleges

Guidance on how Ofsted inspects residential provision of further education colleges.

Applies to England

Documents

Details

This framework sets out Ofsted’s process for inspecting residential provision of further education colleges.

Our approach is underpinned by the following 3 principles that apply to all social care inspections:

  • to focus on the things that matter most to children’s lives
  • to be consistent in our expectations of providers
  • to prioritise our work where improvement is needed most
Published 22 February 2017
Last updated 2 February 2024 + show all updates
  1. Additional guidance on deferring an inspection, inspector conduct during inspections, when and how the provider can raise issues, concerns or complaints during and after the inspection, supporting the well-being of the provider’s managers and staff during inspections and visits, attendance at keeping in touch meetings, discussions with staff and feedback meetings and who the provider may share provisional and final inspection outcomes with.

  2. Minor changes to the evaluation criteria to align, where applicable, with other framework changes on children’s progress and the management of risk. Small change to guidance for inspectors on recording evidence in the inspection database.

  3. Revised text referencing the updated 'Ofsted code of conduct' policy.

  4. Added updated SCCIF for April 2022: additional guidance for when inspectors discover possible unregistered provision.

  5. Added clarification on the scheduling of inspections of the residential provision of merged colleges.

  6. Removed guidance on assurance visits, as we are no longer carrying these out.

  7. Updated to reflect the changes to Ofsted’s post-inspection processes and complaints handling (including the timeline) that we introduced in September 2020. Minor edits for readability.

  8. First published.